Bua Loy Nam King (Floating Lotus in Ginger Syrup)

I don’t do many Thai desserts as I’m not a huge dessert eater but as this dish isn’t too sweet I thought I’d see what it was like and actually, it’s really good. Bua Loy means floating lotus as the rice balls, floating in syrup, resemble lotus, floating on a pond. A lot of versions for bua loy seem to be in coconut milk sauces where as this one is in a warm, spicy ginger ‘soup’.
The trickiest thing is getting the consistency of the dough right- too dry and it’ll crumble, too wet (even a tiny bit) and it turns too gloopy to handle.
To make 4 portions use:

• 150g of sticky rice flour
• 50g of palm sugar or brown sugar
• 50g of black sesame seeds
• cold water
• 50g more of brown sugar
• a chunk of ginger, cut into thin slices, no need to peel
• 200ml of water

Use a blender or food processor to turn the sesame seeds into powder. In a heavy pan heat the palm/brown sugar and mix the seeds in- and the sugar melts, it should create a sticky, not dry paste. Put to one side.
In a bowl put the rice flour and VERY slowly add dribbles of water, kneading the flour until you have a firm dough. Pinch off golf ball sized pieces of the dough and use your fingers to make a flat circle. Pinch off some of the sesame paste, place on the dough and roll up enclosing the paste into a smooth ball. Repeat to use up all the dough/paste.
Heat a pan of water until boiling and gently drop all the rice balls in. Let them simmer for 3-4 minutes until floating and fully cooked through- test one if you want to make sure the dough is fully cooked and no longer floury; it should be bouncy and chewy. Use a spatula to lift out the rice balls and immerse them in cold water to stop them cooking.
Empty the pan and refill with the 200ml of fresh water. Add in the extra brown sugar and ginger slices and heat slowly for at least ten minutes to create the ginger infused syrup.
To serve, place a few of the rice balls into the bottom of each bowl and pour over a generous amount of the hot syrup, sieving out the ginger slices.

Pad Sai Bua Goong (Lotus Stem & Prawn Stir Fry)

Lotus stems are another Thai ingredient I’d never come across before so when I came across them at RaanThai I was quick to grab them and see what they were like. They’re hollow so hold sauce really well but don’t need to be cooked long as they quickly soften. This was a really quick, light stir fry and is very tasty, better still, it only uses 5 ingredients

For two people use:

• 100g of lotus stems, trimmed and cut into inch long pieces. As a substitute for the lotus, I would go for a crunchy veg like pak choi/ choi sum available from most supermarkets.
• 200g (or thereabouts) of raw or precooked large prawns
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• a big splash of oyster sauce
• a big splash of fish sauce
• vegetable oil for frying

Heat a wok on high, when it’s almost smoking, add in a swirl of vegetable oil. Toss in the garlic and straight after the prawns. If using raw, cook until they have turned more or less pink throughout. If using pre-cooked prawns, heat through for a minute before adding in the lotus stems and cook for a further minute before adding in the two sauces. Toss to coat everything well and serve.